Hotel Review: Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport, Virginia

Having left Hutchinson KS, I headed back east to Virginia. Shae had flown back to Norfolk VA for her best friend’s baby shower, so I made the perilous journey back alone (well, other than with our dog Truffles).

Our plan had been to spend 10 days near Washington D.C. to explore the capital, although we ended up spending that time catching up on both sleeping and working. When looking into our hotel options, all the hotels in Washington D.C. itself were pretty expensive (as expected) and there weren’t many suitable options on Airbnb by the time we booked.

I therefore looked a little further afield and noticed some hotels near Dulles Airport were fairly decently priced. The Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport in particular was good value for both paid stays and when using points and had the added benefit of having a kitchen in every room. To save money, we decided to book the stay using points which became even better value with the points we earned despite it being an award stay.

It’s a nice hotel with some good amenities, although there were quite a few aspects I didn’t care for. Some of those negative points were probably more noticeable for us given that we stayed for 10 nights. Here’s a review of our stay at the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport.

Check-In

Truffles and I arrived at about 3:30pm and there wasn’t anyone else in line to check in. We’d booked the stay under Shae’s name as she has Diamond status with Hilton; it thankfully wasn’t a problem that she wasn’t there as her flight had been delayed until the following day due to the bad weather.

We’d booked a 1 king bed studio suite, but I asked if we could be upgraded to a 1 king bedroom suite due to Shae’s status. I wasn’t sure if this would be possible given that we’d be staying 10 nights, but they thankfully had one available. I’m usually up much later than Shae at night, so having a separate bedroom means I can have a light on in the living room without disturbing her sleep.

When staying at Home2 Suites properties, Diamond members are entitled to either 100 Hilton Honors points or a drink and snack. As much as I’m all about the points, 100 Hilton Honors points aren’t worth much and so we get the drinks and snacks when staying at a Home2 Suites. At the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport, this was two bottles of Evian and a choice of chips.

We were allocated room 402 and so I headed upstairs with Truffles to get settled in.

Room

When entering the room, there was a fairly wide entrance. The kitchen was on the right of the room, the living room and dining area were straight ahead, while the bedroom and bathroom were off to the left.

The one bedroom suites have two closets – one in the bedroom and one by the entrance. The one by the entrance is empty other than a rail with clothing hangers, with a curtain that can be pulled across. This closet was perfect for storing most of our bags seeing as we travel with pretty much everything we own (we’re on a 5 year, 50 state road trip).

Kitchen

There’s a well designed kitchen area with six place settings. It was nice having so many plates, bowls, mugs, etc. so that we didn’t have to run the dishwasher until it was full.

The kitchen is also well-equipped with a fridge-freezer, microwave, sink, dishwasher and coffee maker. One slightly disappointing thing is that there’s no stove top, but you can get a portable one from the front desk if you need. We travel with a portable kitchen that includes an Instant Pot, so I just used that to make meals instead.

In the drawers there was silverware, cookware, a toaster and colander.

Living Room

Along the same wall as the kitchen was a desk and office chair, as well as a dresser with the TV on top. There was additional shelving above the desk and recycling cans below which is something we appreciated.

In fact, there were two desks, one of which was on wheels, so it could be maneuvered around the room easily.

On the opposite side of the room was a sofa bed, ottoman and a couple of side tables.

To the left of the sofa – back towards the kitchen area – was a dining table with three chairs. I ended up using this as my desk as it meant I could also see the TV from there.

Bedroom

Between the dining table and sofa was the door to the bedroom. The bedroom was fairly large and had a king bed which was very comfortable.

Both sides of the bed had several power outlets available which is always nice to have.

Both the bedroom and living room had blinds rather than curtains, with a set of sheer blinds and then some blackout blinds. The blackout blinds worked really well which helped us get a good night’s sleep each night.

Opposite the bed was a large dresser with a TV on top.

To the left of the dresser was a closet containing an iron, ironing board and luggage rack.

Bathroom

The bathroom was off to the left of the bed and had a nice sink and vanity.

Off to the right was the toilet and a walk-in shower.

Inside the shower were shampoo and shower gel dispensers. I’m perfectly fine when hotels offer these rather than small bottles as it reduces wastage. We also rarely get housekeeping, so having these dispensers helps ensure we don’t run out.

On top of the vanity were some additional toiletries including a vanity kit, shower cap, soap, conditioner and body lotion.

Room’s Negative Points

Overall, we were pretty happy with our room, especially because we were upgraded to a one bedroom suite. There were some aspects of it that we didn’t like though:

Noise

This was probably the worst part of all. The floors of the hotel don’t seem to be very thick, so having guests above you can be pretty noisy.

It didn’t help that we had noisier than average guests above us. They’d often thump on the floor, stomp about and drop what sounded like bowling balls on the floor. It got particularly bad between 10 pm and midnight every night which was even more frustrating as Shae had gone to bed. Unfortunately all the banging would set Truffles off barking, so that made things even louder!

We’d called down to the front desk about the upstairs banging, but that didn’t seem to help, so a few nights I had to resort to banging on the ceiling to try to get them to quieten down.

Toilet paper

I’m not particularly fussy when it comes to toilet paper. Shae and I live in hotels and Airbnbs nowadays and so we’re at the mercy of whatever toilet paper is provided. That said, the toilet paper they offer at the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport is awful. Seriously – some of the worst toilet paper we’ve ever had to use – it’s dry, scratchy and extremely uncomfortable to use. So bad in fact that after two days we went out and bought our own to use for the rest of our stay.

Shower

The water pressure in the shower was almost the worst we’ve ever had (that award still goes to the Hyatt Place Corpus Christi). It wouldn’t have been too bad for a day or two, but having a weak trickle for 10 days was annoying.

Kitchen

I mentioned it earlier, but it was disappointing to not have a stove top. I think that might be a Home2 Suites thing in general as we didn’t have one at the Home2 Suites Green Bay either. Given how long that wall is though, I’d much rather they reduced some of the closet or living room desk length by a foot or two to lengthen the kitchen and add a small stove top.

Sofa bed

The seat cushions themselves were fairly comfortable, but the seat was slightly longer than most couches. That meant it wasn’t too comfortable to sit on as my back didn’t reach the back of the couch. As a result, it meant sitting at a slightly uncomfortable angle seeing as there weren’t any cushions to support our back.

Breakfast

Breakfast is included in your room rate when staying at the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport. It’s served until 9 am during the week and until 10 am at the weekend. This was a shame as the Home2 Suites we stayed at in Green Bay, Wisconsin served it until 10 am and 11 am respectively.

In terms of hot options, there were a couple of different types of breakfast sandwiches each day – sausage, egg and cheese bagels and a bacon, egg and cheese roll. They also had bowls containing scrambled eggs, sausage, peppers and cheese. These are all kept cold, with microwaves provided to heat them up.

I think they also offered hard boiled eggs which are kept in the black tub in the picture below (it was empty the day I took the photos).

The other breakfast options remained the same each morning. It was an OK spread, but not too extensive and they don’t offer freshly cut fruit like some other hotel brands do. The pastries were also very dry both times I tried one.

As for beverages, there was a juice machine in the breakfast area.

There was also a coffee and tea station in the lobby that was available 24 hours a day.

Amenities

Home2 Suites is an extended stay brand and so they tend to have more amenities than your average hotel. There’s an indoor saline swimming pool (i.e. they don’t use chlorine) as well as a whirlpool. The swimming pool was a lovely temperature and Shae and I actually took advantage of having a pool for once.

The whirlpool was large enough to seat a few people and wasn’t uncomfortably hot unlike the whirlpools at some other hotels we’ve stayed at.

The hotel has a good-sized fitness room with several pieces of equipment. The TVs on the treadmills worked and the temperature in the gym can be controlled by guests – both features that I appreciate. One thing that was missing though was a water cooler. From what I can remember, every hotel fitness room I’ve seen has had one, but for some reason this Home2 Suites doesn’t.

In the same area as the fitness room is the guest laundry facilities. There are a couple of washing machines and a couple of dryers, all of which cost $0.75 per load which is very reasonable.

If you want somewhere to hang out with family, friends or colleagues, you’re spoiled for choice. The lobby has a large seating area, with a couple of the tables having Tic-Tac-Toe boards (that’s Noughts and Crosses for fellow Brits).

That’s not all though. Out the front of the hotel is a large seating area, complete with a gas fire pit.

At the back of the hotel there’s an additional seating area outside the swimming pool. There are also a couple of grills, but I didn’t get them in the photo below.

If you need to use the internet during your stay or print something off, there’s a business center in the lobby. The photo below only has one computer showing, but there’s a second one available.

The lobby also has a pantry area if you want a quick bite to eat or something to drink.

Seeing as the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport is so close to the airport, they offer a free shuttle to take you to and from IAD.

Pet-Friendliness

The Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport is a pet-friendly hotel which is one of the reasons we picked it as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles.

The pet fee is $50 for 1-6 days and $100 if staying a week or more. Having said that, we were only charged $50 even though we stayed for 10 nights. They have a maximum weight limit of 50 lbs and you’re limited to two dogs per room.

The hotel is surrounded by lots of grassy areas, so there’s no problem with having to find somewhere for your dog to do their business. They have a dedicated dog area out back, along with another poop station at the front of the hotel.

This Home2 Suites is only a mile away from South Riding Dog Park at Elk Lick Park. The entire dog park is covered in mulch, so it’s not overly attractive to look at, but it’s a fairly good size.

One thing to note is that although there are two distinct sections of the dog park, there’s no barrier between them. That means large and small dogs are all together, something Truffles wasn’t a huge fan of as she’s only 10 lbs.

The dog park is also next to a small lake with a path running along one side of it, so that’s a good area to walk around too.

If you’d like a dog park with separate sections for large and small dogs, there’s one about 15 minutes away from the hotel at Rock Hill District Park.

Service

Service at the hotel was fair, but not what I’d class as good. When checking in, I’d had to specifically ask for an upgrade rather than it being proactively offered with our Diamond status. Staff didn’t tend to say goodbye to guests as they left or greet them when they came back, something that Hyatt Places do very well.

I have one other observation which sounds weird but seemed in keeping with their not amazing service. Management seemed to have a huddle with staff every morning after breakfast. They’d do this in the lobby and there’d be about a dozen of them standing in a circle. Due to the layout of the lobby, this huddle blocked the main walkway. As a result, us and other guests had to walk around the outer edge of the lobby as none of the staff – including what seemed to be the management – made any effort to move out of the way when guests were coming in either direction.

As for housekeeping, they were the noisiest housekeeping staff I’ve ever known. To be fair, I think some of the problem relates to how thin the walls and floors are, but when they were in a neighboring room or above us, it sounded like they were doing construction with how loud they’d be banging everything. They also weren’t particularly quiet when communicating, so we could sometimes hear them calling out to each other from further down the hall.

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi was free and had a very good connection and speed – I don’t remember having any issues with it.

Location

The Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport is in the South Riding neighborhood which seemed quite nice.

It’s right next to a Chick-Fil-A, so we got dinner from there one night. Quick tip if you’ll be staying at the hotel for a few nights and like Chick-Fil-A – download their app and place your order through it. I did that and I’ve since received offers for at least three free sandwiches from the restaurant manager through the app and by email. I just wish I’d realized this beforehand as we ate there towards the end of the stay and so got all these offers after checking out!

The hotel is only about 15 minutes away from the airport, so it’s a convenient place to stay if flying in or out of Dulles. It’s also not far from several grocery stores, restaurants, etc.

If you’re wanting to visit Washington D.C., you’re looking at anything from a 45-90 minute drive depending on traffic.

Parking

Parking is free and there’s loads of it. Be careful when driving out of the parking lot though as drivers coming out of Chick-Fil-A seem oblivious to other cars and so we almost got hit a couple of times leaving the hotel.

Cost

We paid for our stay using points. Home2 Suites is one of Hilton’s brands and so they have variable pricing for award nights. For our stay, it was only 18,000 points per night, apart from one night when it was 22,000 points. Hilton offers every 5th night free on award stays, so we got two free nights. That meant our total cost for 10 nights was 148,000 points.

An added bonus was that Hilton’s promotion at the time offered bonus points even on award stays. We therefore earned 12,000 bonus points from that, along with 5,000 other points which is listed on our statement as ‘CRM WINBACK HILTON HONORS 5 OFFER’. I’ve no clue what that relates too, but I’ll happily take 5,000 points any day of the week!

Our net cost was therefore 131,000 points, or 13,100 points per night which is excellent value. For comparison, the paid rate would’ve been $83.99 which is also a very reasonable price. That means we only got 0.64cpp (cents per point) of value with our points. That’s above average for Hilton Honors, but much less than we usually get. Paying nothing for our stay though trumped saving our points to get an even better ‘cent per point’ value, especially seeing as it meant we managed to stay under budget that month.

Final Thoughts

I have mixed feelings about our stay at the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport. I loved that we got upgraded to a one bedroom suite for the duration of our 10 nights there. The suite was spacious, having a kitchen was helpful, the bed was very comfortable and the hotel has some great amenities.

Having said that, it was a noisier hotel than normal due to the thin floors and walls. The water pressure in the shower was lame, the breakfast options weren’t particularly extensive, the service wasn’t very good and the toilet paper was simply awful.

To be honest, it was the noise that was most bothersome and that’s because it often set Truffles off barking. If you’re not traveling with a dog who’s sensitive to endless thumping on the ceiling late at night, it’s a perfectly good place to stay, especially because it’s good value whether you’re paying cash or with points.

For us though, we’ll likely be visiting the area later this year, so we’ll probably stay somewhere else.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives the Home2 Suites Chantilly Dulles Airport two paws out of four – pawsibly worth staying at. The hotel has a reasonable pet fee, it has lots of grassy areas and it’s near a dog park. She didn’t like how noisy the hotel was though which is why she’s marked it down.

Our Rating

Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.7 / 5
Food = 3.5 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 3.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5

Total = 4.1 / 5

Address

Home2 Suites, 43340 Defender Dr, Chantilly, VA 20152